Confession of faith of the French Evangelical Baptist Churches

God

We worship God alone, one in three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is Creator of all things, holy, omnipotent, love, and alive eternally. God has revealed himself throughout history, firstly as the God of the people of Israel, then in a more definite manner, as the son, Jesus of Nazareth, Christ announced by the prophets. This revelation is presented to us through the Holy Scriptures .

The Holy Scriptures

The Bible is divinely inspired. The Holy Spirit has presided from the very origin and throughout its writings. These holy scriptures are uniquely God’s written word. This document is the covenant between God and his people (Old Testament), between God and the community of those who have accepted salvation offered through Christ (New Testament), this Word reveals the thoughts which God wishes to convey to us along with his will and his love for the world. It contains the vital keys to guide us to Jesus Christ, who grants us salvation and gives us everything we need to put our lives into God’s service. The bible is the supreme reference on which we base every one of our beliefs, traditions and religious practices. Its authority comes from God alone and governs the life of the believer and the Church.

Humanity, the fall of man and its consequences

Sin, an act of disobedience, which brings about death, entered into the world. This sinful nature has spread to every person. All of mankind, having been separated from God, lives thereafter under the domination of evil and is subject to God’s judgement.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ, God’s only son for all eternity, is the sole mediator between God and men. He came down among men, fully man yet fully God, with those two natures clearly distinct in perfect union within himself. Through Jesus’s own life which was pure and sinless yet full of God’s power and love, he taught us how God wants us to live a holy life. He fulfilled the work of redemption by giving his life on the cross, as a perfect living sacrifice in order to erase our sins and reconcile us to God. He is Lord, having risen from the dead and he now lives eternally with the Father, in his glory.

Salvation

Through the works of the Holy Spirit, the sinful man is called to repent from his sin, to turn towards God, accept the atoning work of Jesus Christ by faith and be united to him in his death and resurrection. Through doing this, and by the grace of God, we can receive forgiveness from our sins. Once those who are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ, they live henceforth in a legitimate relationship with God, like between a child and their Father. They are born into a new eternal life and enter into the kingdom of God. Faith produces good works that are pleasing to God and a life which increasingly conforms to his will.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, brings to life the reality of salvation and makes it beneficial and efficient in the heart of man. The Holy Spirit inhabits the believer and leads him to glorify the Lord through a life of prayer and persevering faithfulness to the truth of the Scriptures. He is the guarantor of our eternal inheritance. The Holy Spirit produces fruit-bearing among believers, enabling them to discern the will of God and gives them the gifts needed to edify others, to be put at the service of the church and to be a living testimony throughout the world.

The Church

The Church is the people that God gives himself to through Jesus Christ to celebrate the glory of his grace, to proclaim the good news of salvation and to be a living testimony among men by his acts of justice, mercy and reconciliation. God has set up ministries of his Word so that others will come to know him, to call sinners to believe in Jesus Christ, to become part of his people and to grow in his life as a Christian.

The local church

A local church, formed according to the Word of God, is a community of believers baptised upon profession of their faith. Wherever the church has been planted, it is a concrete and visible representation of the universal Church, the body of Christ. The local church is independent of any authority other than that of Jesus Christ. However, it can not live on its own : fraternal ties bond it to other churches. All the members of the local church, commit themselves voluntarily to put their gifts that they have received to joint use under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the same way churches recognise that God has entrusted certain members to carry out a particular service in compliance to the New Testament teachings.

Baptism

As the Scriptures teach us, the believer is called to publicly confess his or her faith through the act of baptism. Baptism demonstrates, in a visible way, the reality of the work of God’s salvation and the union between the believer and Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection.

The Lord’s Supper

The Lord calls his disciples to break and share bread together and to drink from the cup of communion in remembrance of Him, announcing his death until he comes again. In doing this, they profess, that, by their communion with the living Christ, they form one body and are united to each other in a same spirit.

Our hope

The Lord Jesus Christ will come again from heaven in the same way he ascended, to renew all things and to fully manifest the work of salvation. All the dead will be raised up and each person will have to give account of their life in front of God. Those who are found justified in Jesus Christ will have eternal life and the others eternal punishment. God has promised a new heaven and a new earth. He will live amongst his people: this is what we are waiting for.